From: hekunze@barrow.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 12/21
Date: 1995/12/21
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 122539832
sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
organization: University of Waterloo
newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
- The WWF had In Your House on this past Sunday. I'd give the show a
thumbs up since two of the matches were quite good. Surprises included
the return of Jeff Jarrett to the WWF; he worked an angle with Ahmed
Johnson that came off flat for me since Johnson (poorly) sold Jarrett's
chair shots for a few seconds before deciding that he was Hulk Hogan.
SMW's Boo Bradley debuted as Zanta Klaus (name given the next night),
demolishing Savio Vega. The Million Dollar Corporation looks really
important if they set up a nobody like Savio Vega with an elaborate
ruse like this - blech. Oh well, both of these "new" guys should
add something to the WWF, so in the end I'm still slightly positive,
although their first feuds look terrible. On the plus side, Bret Hart
delivered a great match, something that previous champ, Diesel, was
continually unable to do. I don't think they needed to bother with
the juice; ghoulish comments on the net praised the match seemingly
for the mere reason that there was blood. The Helmsley vs. Godwinn
match was a surprise. On the down side again, Undertaker vs. Mabel
was pretty bad. Worse yet, Undertaker will get a title shot against
Bret Hart at Royal Rumble. And Diesel was mad about that. Yikes;
oh well, at least Shawn Michaels is supposed to get the shot at
WrestleMania. It does nothing for me to see reasonably untalented
guys bitching over who deserves a title shot. This will lead to an
Undertaker vs. Diesel program: another stinker, it would seem.
Sid & 1-2-3 Kid lost decisively to Razor Ramon & Marty Jannetty,
so common sense says they will win the tag titles in the near future.
Still, I'm positive: Bret stays champ, delivers a great match,
and promises to work hard on top; Helmsley shows a lot; Jarrett
returns and takes the first spot at the Rumble, which can only be
a good thing. That'll do.
- Rumours on wrestler movements:
- Latest scuttlebutt on Steve Austin is that he'll debut as the top guy
in the Million Dollar Corporation, working the same Million Dollar
Champion gimmick that Ted DiBiase used years back.
- Cactus Jack's WWF debut will take place before mid-year.
- The Public Enemy & Konnan will all apparently debut at the January
WCW Clash of Champions. Although Paul Heyman claims to have the
pro-wrestling rights to the Public Enemy name, talk is that WCW will
try to get the rights directly from Def Jam records, who produce
the rap group's albums. Konnan will supposedly be pushed straight
to the US Title, currently held by Kensuke Sasaki.
- Since Konnan is the guy who handles AAA's talent usage outside of
the AAA promotion, it seems likely that WCW will also bring in other
talent from the promotion and have the exclusive ability to do so.
Dave Meltzer suggests that giving Konnan the US Title is just a way
of solidifying the relationship to get at the better talent (like
Rey Misterio Jr. and Psicosis), screwing ECW in the process.
- David "Fit" Finlay is also expected to come in to WCW in January.
Finlay works in the UK and has been routinely used in the New Japan
Jr. Heavyweight division over the years and has always struck me as
a pretty good performer in that division. But you can never tell
for sure because his opposition in that group is so good.
- The Bushwhackers will also supposedly be brought in to WCW shortly.
This action is rumoured to be a favour to Hulk Hogan.
- Alundra Blayze, ahem, Madusa Miceli debuted in WCW on Monday night;
it's unclear what her role in the promotion will be.
- There is talk that Adam Bomb will come to WCW.
- The WWF may re-create the Demolition team, presumably using Bill
Eadie and Barry Darsow.
- Besides Boo Bradley, the WWF also picked up SMW-used-to-bes Buddy
Landell and Tom Pritchard. They've apparently offered Jim Cornette
a booking position.
- The Observer reports that there is talk that the Smoking Gunns want
to leave the WWF, but suggests that they and and others are just
unhappy with payoffs.
- The second week of Monday Night RAW airing "live" in the greater Toronto
area in Southern Ontario was in fact a live show. Unfortunately, it
wasn't a particularly good live show, IMO. In his first match back with
the WWF, Jeff Jarrett wrestled Fatu and did a terrible job selling Fatu's
punches; at one point it was bad enough that Vince McMahon, who rarely
talks about the matches except to occasionally exclaim "What a maneuver!"
or something else suitably generic, pointed out that Jarrett was showing
"ring rust." The highlight of the whole show was the video tribute to
Shawn Michaels. The Shawn Michaels angle has been really well done.
- WCW has Starrcade on PPV on 12/27/95. Tentative line-up has:
- No Hulk Hogan. Not even an appearance.
- Randy Savage vs. winner of triangle match for the WCW Title
- Ric Flair vs. Sting vs. Lex Luger in a triangular match to
determine the challenger for the WCW Title match
- A 7 vs. 7 series with WCW wrestlers vs. New Japan wrestlers,
featuring:
- Sting vs. Kensuke Sasaki
- Alex Wright vs. Koji Kanemoto
- Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
- Lex Luger vs. Masa Chono
- Johnny B. Badd vs. Masa Saito
- Eddy Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani
- Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger
- The RAW vs. Nitro ratings war thus far looks like this (draw
your own conclusions):
WCW Nitro WWF RAW
Rating Share Live Rating Share Live
09/04/95 2.9 ? Y - - -
09/11/95 2.5 3.8 Y 2.2 3.2 N
09/18/95 2.4 3.4 Y 2.5 3.4 N
09/25/95 1.9 2.8 Y 2.7 3.8 Y
10/02/95 2.5 3.7 Y 2.5 3.5 N
10/09/95 2.6 3.8 Y 2.6 3.8 N
10/16/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.5 3.6 N
10/23/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.6 3.8 Y
10/30/95 2.5 3.6 Y 2.2 3.1 N
11/06/95 2.3 3.2 Y 2.1 3.0 N
11/13/95 2.0 2.9 N 2.6 3.9 N
11/20/95 2.5 3.6 Y 2.3 3.3 Y
11/27/95 2.3 3.3 Y 2.5 3.4 N
12/04/95 2.6 3.8 Y 2.4 3.4 N
12/11/95 2.6 3.7 Y 2.5 3.4 N
- The WWF has the Royal Rumble PPV on 01/21/96. The line-up has:
- Bret Hart vs. Undertaker for the WWF Title
- The Royal Rumble match. Jeff Jarrett is the first guy in.
With Diesel bitching about being overlooked as the obvious top contender,
there is talk that this show will actually have a Diesel vs. Undertaker
match, with the winner getting the title shot the same night.
- WCW has a Clash of Champions on 01/23/96. Tentative line-up has:
- Nasty Boys vs. Public Enemy
- WCW has a PPV on 02/11/96.
- The WWF has an In Your House PPV on 02/18/96. It's expected that the
Royal Rumble winner will get a WWF Title shot.
- The WWF has WrestleMania in April. The projected has:
- Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Title
- Diesel vs. Undertaker
- Awards: The awards results were posted Tuesday morning. They are
also on my web page.
- WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The
wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history,
Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things.
- Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos.
If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
The VideoMarinepiad III home video is now available.
Herb...